Winter Melon dragged the young man along in silence, simultaneously working through her own escape options.
She was gravely wounded — that Body Integration cultivator had crippled her with a single strike.
An extremely troublesome blood qi still coiled within her body, and most of her cultivation had to be spent resisting its assault.
The cultivation she could actually wield... was probably less than a tenth of her normal strength.
In a real fight, she probably couldn't even defeat a Golden Core cultivator. At best, she could trade her life for one.
Watermelon behind her was even worse off — he didn't even have the strength to walk.
She still didn't know what kind of arrangements the enemy had made, or whether enemies were searching for her nearby.
It was even possible the enemy had deliberately let them go, though the purpose remained unclear.
Looking at the situation, no matter how she framed it, there didn't seem to be any way out. She was just making pure, futile struggle.
Suddenly, Winter Melon stopped. She quickly hid the young man behind her and looked warily up at the cliff above.
After a moment, a clear male voice rang out.
"Clouds reclining across the wilds — Senior Sister, the scenery here is beyond compare."
A moment later, a slightly cool female voice responded.
"Mm."
"It's just a pity there's no wine or tea. Otherwise, resting here a while would be nice."
"Mm."
"Senior Sister... have you not learned the pronunciation of any other characters?"
"Oh?"
"Fine, pretend your junior brother didn't say anything. Let's hurry along."
"Mm."
Winter Melon held her breath and kept her divine sense completely withdrawn, only daring to peek from the corner of her eye.
She saw two figures descending from the mountain — a man and woman dressed in what looked like sect attire.
The man wore a warm smile and walked with a casual stride. At first glance, he appeared to be a free-spirited, easygoing person.
The woman, however, was something else entirely.
Her gaze was steady and serene. Her features weren't exquisitely refined, but her presence was extraordinarily righteous — like a great Confucian scholar.
Every movement she made carried a unique grace, and the longsword at her waist was clearly no ordinary weapon.
From time to time, a pure righteous aura drifted out from it.
Both were disciples of a high-tier sect. Their auras were steady and refined — clearly the result of long, patient cultivation.
A poor, weak sect that wanted to develop had to feed on the blood and sweat of its current generation of disciples. Rapid breakthroughs in cultivation realm were the only true path forward.
Even a trash Nascent Soul was still a Nascent Soul, with a huge advantage over any ordinary Golden Core.
Only with high-tier cultivators could a sect continue to grow. Otherwise, it would fall into a death spiral — no high-tier cultivators meant no resources, no resources meant no way to carefully train disciples' abilities, which meant no high-tier cultivators.
To break out of that trap, a sect had to sacrifice the future of one or even two generations of disciples.
Moreover, both of these two carried quite a few protective treasures of no low grade.
Winter Melon's eyes stayed fixed on the woman. A cultivator whose righteous aura overflowed like this... it was her first time seeing one in this day and age.
Neither of them noticed her or the hidden young man. They walked forward with calm steps until they had passed.
Her thoughts raced. With the heavy encirclement all around, conventional methods wouldn't work. At this point, she had no choice but to gamble.
Winter Melon watched their retreating figures and finally called out.
"Fellow Daoists! Save us!"
Both figures quickly stopped and turned to look toward the source of the voice.
Cui Hao watched as Winter Melon dragged the young man out from the forest.
Only after sensing that the protective treasure against his chest was unchanged did he rush forward, his voice filled with urgency.
"Fellow Daoist, what's happened to you?"
Winter Melon pointed at the young man, her voice full of sorrow.
"Fellow Daoists, we are rogue cultivators from the Eastern Victorious Divine Continent."
"We were attacked by demonic cultivators on the road. He risked his life so we could escape."
"We don't know if the demonic cultivator is still hunting in the area, so we could only hide in the mountains to survive."
Winter Melon spoke as she revealed her right hand, already eaten to the bone by blood qi.
Lin Luoyu stepped forward, her gaze sweeping over it. "Blood qi?"
Winter Melon nodded heavily, then decisively dropped to her knees, her voice pleading.
"It was a blood qi demonic cultivator — seemed to be from the Evil Spirit Cult."
"Please, Fellow Daoists, save our lives."
Cui Hao turned to look at Lin Luoyu. "Senior Sister, demonic cultivators harm the people. We can't just stand by and watch."
Lin Luoyu's brow furrowed slightly. After a moment of hesitation, she spoke.
"This blood qi is of extremely high quality. For you to have endured it, your cultivation must not be low."
"If a demonic cultivator is hunting you, I'm only at the Golden Core stage. I might not be able to protect you. It's not that I'm unwilling to save you."
Winter Melon kowtowed heavily at her words.
"The Evil Spirit Cult has always bullied the weak and feared the strong. You two are clearly disciples of a great sect. They surely wouldn't dare act against you — otherwise the Evil Spirit Cult would have been wiped out long ago."
Cui Hao spoke urgently. "That's right, Senior Sister."
"Our Fentian Lijin Sect is backed by the Tai Dao Sect. What demonic cultivator in the Eastern Victorious Divine Continent would dare cross us?"
Tears welled in Winter Melon's eyes as she looked at Lin Luoyu, whose expression was still somewhat conflicted.
From what she could see, the man was simply a fool with no guile. The righteous cultivator seemed honorable, but she wasn't stupid.
However, Winter Melon knew exactly how to deal with such people — a noble man can be deceived through his own principles.
"With demonic cultivators running rampant today, isn't it precisely because no one lifts a hand?" Winter Melon said, her voice filled with righteous grief.
"It's exactly because I saved innocent mortals that I drew the hatred of blood qi demonic cultivators and was hunted down."
"Today I was naive, believing the world couldn't be like this. The truest feelings in this world are nothing but misplaced trust."
"If Fellow Daoists wish to leave, then go."
Cui Hao's voice turned urgent. "Senior Sister! How can we let a good person's warm blood run cold?"
"How could this blood qi and these wounds be faked?"
Lin Luoyu fell silent for a moment, then pulled a bottle of pills from her spatial ring and handed it to Winter Melon.
"Those who gather firewood for the many must not be left to freeze in the wind and snow."
"Junior Brother, stay behind me. If we meet a demonic cultivator, I'll cover your retreat."
Winter Melon's hands trembled as she accepted the bottle. She immediately turned and fed the first pill to the young man bound in vines.
The young man felt the pill on his lips and saw a strange little smile appear on Winter Melon's face.
——————
Perhaps the demonic cultivators thought the two of them were just small fry not worth the effort to hunt down. Or perhaps they really did fear the two's status as disciples of a great sect.
Winter Melon spent the entire journey on edge, but in the end she still managed to slip out of the mountain forest.
Qulin City was naturally out of the question. Where she could escape the encirclement, Winter Melon had no idea — but without question, sticking close to these two and slipping out with them was her best option.
After all, in the Eastern Victorious Divine Continent, the name of the Tai Dao Sect was incredibly useful.
She had also asked clearly for their names. The free-spirited man was Cui Hao, and the righteous woman was Lin Luoyu.
The two had accepted a sect mission and were heading out for training.
Cui Hao was a chatterbox. All along the way, his mouth never stopped, asking question after question — half concern, half nonsense.
Lin Luoyu spoke very little. Only when pressed would she snap "shut up."
Otherwise, she answered every question with "mm" or "oh." Her personality was clearly introverted.
Although Winter Melon knew perfectly well that Lin Luoyu was the decision-maker, she still chose to first build a relationship with Cui Hao.
Cui Hao was extroverted, looked extremely gullible, and was easy to deceive and manipulate.
Winter Melon looked at the foolishly grinning Cui Hao and spoke softly.
"Thank you, Fellow Daoist Cui Hao, for your help. Even serving as ox or horse would not repay this debt."
"Oh, what are you saying? Working as an ox or horse — surely that's something you could pay off."
"...Huh?"
"Just kidding. So — was it funny?"
"...Funny... it was funny."
"If it's funny, why aren't you laughing?"
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